Souvick D.

I support Surjeet's answer. Very few parents have the understanding about classical Indian instruments, so that they would be able to guide the youngsters properly. Then again the question of passion versus profession. For recreation, most parents would send the kids to park for playing, movie, watching TV, etc.; they hardly consider the fact that music improves the ability to concentrate, and increases intelligence, helps in development of the brain. Finally, professionally speaking almost no parents want their children to become a musician as they don't see any future with it. How can we expect a child to see future when their parents do not.? Like any other profession, music is also like a business.. but in India there is no professional institution for artist management or music counselling to give comprehensive guidelines on the subject. What exists is a hierarchy, and no ustad or pandit wants to share the secrets of the business outside the lineage. This is an unfortunate fact. That is why we see only children of established musicians walking on the way that the others are always skeptical about. This is the system in India, we can't expect to change it overnight

At least 15 years to be in the starting range of what we mean by expert... and expertise has different heights, so it takes longer association with music in general, not only tabla.... to become an accomplished accompanist. All great tabla-players are not only soloists, their greatness is also evident in their accompanying skills to varied music genres.